Homebrew Dragon Species Details

Physical Description

Dragons are winged reptilians of ancient lineage and terrifying powers. They are known and feared for their predatory behaviour, cunning, wit, and greed. The oldest dragons are regarded as some of the most powerful creatures in the world. Dragons are magical creatures whose innate power gives them many preternatural abilities. Many creatures, including wyverns and dragon turtles, have draconic blood, however, true dragons are made up of two categories: chromatic and metallic dragons. Blue, white, black, green and red dragons are selfish, evil and feared by everyone and everything. Bronze, copper, brass, gold, and silver are noble, benign and highly respected by the wise people of their race. Although their goals and ideals vary tremendously, all dragons covet riches and strive to accumulate piles of coins, gems, jewellery and magical items. Dragons with great mountains of treasure hate to leave them for a long time, only venturing out of their dens to patrol and feed themselves. They can live for thousands of years, and while aging, they grow ever stronger, and their treasure hoards grow ever larger.

Chromatic Dragons

Black Dragons

Black dragons are the most vile-tempered and cruel of all chromatic dragons and are very likely to avoid talking to others if there isn't a bargain to be made. These dragons are easily distinguished by their horns, which protrude from the sides of their heads, wrap around it, then protrude forward. A large frill adorns the upper part of their neck. They smell of rotting vegetation, foul water, or powerful acid which they can breathe. Considered ambush predators, these jungle or forest dragons revel in the decay and death of civilizations, often residing in the ruins of old cities, smugly relishing the fact that these individuals who lived here before died, and itself survived. Black dragons can control water which they use to grapple and tug the prey to their doom. Ambush predators by nature, it is unlikely for black dragons to engage in direct combat, so even when ambushing others, there is also no guarantee that the dragon is close by, as they can use their abilities to ensnarl its targets.

Blue Dragons

Blue dragons have a single large horn protruding from their heads and large, frilled ears. Their tails are thick and bumpy, their wings are more pronounced than other dragon species wings, and they smell like ozone and sand. Blue dragons usually enjoy mocking and manipulative more than outwardly cruel actions, though they do like torturing and murdering lesser creatures, aided by their natural talents for hallucination. They are able to trick desert travellers into drinking sand or going miles away from their original path. Tactically obsessed and possessing the ability to fly for days on end, an adventure or group of adventurers who will find themselves facing a blue dragon will likely be pushed to their limits, seeing if they would manage to survive its pursuits for days on end. Shooting lightning bolts at a great distance and always keeping away, it isn't an easy target. If an ambushed and severely damage, a blue dragon will simply fly way and plan a different trap or ambush. Sudden encounters with a blue dragon are one of the most incessant and endless tactics, likely of the kind of being more fun to it than just outright attacking the party.

Green Dragons

Green dragons posses a large, waving crest or fin that starts at their nose and runs the length of their body, as well as long, slender forked tongues. They have an unusual taste for treasure and love collecting individuals to enslave. Otherwise, these dragons love to corrupt powerful or influential individuals. They are also highly adept at scheming. For example: A green dragon may fly down, kill half of a group and leave the other half confused or frightened, wondering what happened. "Anyone can take something by force, but few have the cunning to take by wit" is the fundamental nature of these dragons.

Though they are nasty bunch, one of a green dragon’s redeeming qualities is that they love their family immensely. A male and a female mate until death, and if their children are ever threatened, both parents will do their upmost to protect them or in the worst case avenge them. However, don’t be fooled by a green dragon’s familial love, the parents will train their children to be manipulative, treacherous, and teach them how to use humanoids to get whatever they want.

Red Dragons

Red dragons have two swept-back horns on their heads and smell of smoke and sulphur. The biggest, mightiest, and the quickest to anger out of all dragons, these guys are not to be messed with. Being bulky, red dragons prefer to fight on the ground. There will be no dialogue with a red dragon and those it comes across, it will see you, and it will pounce on you. Arrogant, believing its kind to be the pinnacle of all creation, a fight with a red dragon is a fight to the death. Red dragons also believe that those who can't protect what they have do not deserve to have it, and those with the power to take something deserve to have it. Red dragons are typically considered tyrants and the only thing a red dragon cares about is reputation. They will tell other dragons of its feats and downplay the feats of others. It will try to never be outdone and if another dragon’s feats surpass their own, they will do everything in their power to outdo them. If a red dragon cannot outdo its competitor’s fame, it will go into an uncontrolled rage, lasting for days.

The mating of red dragons is quite unique in that around every hundred years, females lay four to six unfertile or fertile eggs. During the period before the eggs are laid, male red dragons go into a frenzy to earn prestige among their kind. When a female is ready to lay her eggs, whichever male red dragon has the most reputation will get the change to reproduce with the female red dragon. After fertile eggs are laid, females will often have help from other female red dragons, often ones too old to be fertile, and they will raise the wyrmlings for hundreds of years or until the babies old enough to become rivals.

Red dragons typically choose to live on tall mountains where everything nearby to the mountain is considered its territory. Even snow-covered mountains work as the bigger the mountain, the larger the territory of a red dragon.

White Dragons

White dragons are the most feral of the classic chromatic dragons. Their heads and necks blend seamlessly into one another, and their wings are frayed along the edges. They have a flap of skin (dewlap) lined with spines beneath their chin and have a high crest atop a streamlined head and have a crisp, blue odour. Though less intelligent than other dragons, they are still smarter than most of sentient creatures and powerful enough to overwhelm most humanoids. White dragons prefer to not interact with others of its kind except during mating and will actively go out of their way to avoid dragons of other types.

Metallic Dragons

Brass Dragons

Brass dragons are known to be quite sociable for dragons and tend to have a strong mercenary streak, often agreeing to serve as guardians or battle champions for anyone willing to pay suitably well. Although they usually don't kill adventures or travellers who come upon them, they often will try to force them to stay with them for some time and regale the dragon in their adventures and life's story. Those the dragon isn't interested in or those who don't mean well are likely get buried up until their head in sand.

Brass dragons tend to not like being anywhere near other copper or brass dragons. This is because brass dragons are particularly prideful. They might not think they are the best at everything, but each brass dragon usually has a few things it believes it is the best at. In addition, when forced to talk to copper dragons, brass dragons tend to be aggravated at the way copper dragons tend to joke and not take things seriously.

Bronze Dragons

Duty-bound and honourable to a fault, bronze dragons commit themselves to order and are among the most devout champions of that ideal. As order's sworn servants, bronze dragons can seem arrogant and haughty with an inflated sense of self. A tendency that can put them at odds with those they meet. In rare cases, this self-righteousness grows into something far more sinister, and the bronze dragon takes over what it sees as lesser races, ruling as a cruel tyrant to its subjects. Bronze dragons claim coastlines, inlets, and islands as their own, constructing lairs in coastal caves that have access to the sea. More aggressive bronze dragons purposely choose lairs near shipping lanes so they can claim tribute from merchant vessels as those craft pass by. All bronze dragons share a deep and abiding hatred for blue dragons, and they are vigilant in protecting their homes from these interlopers.

Copper Dragons

Copper dragons are born tricksters and jokesters. They tend to be quite devious and clever, but their intent is purely benign. They do not seek to harm others, but merely wish to impress or fool others with clever pranks. A copper dragon will take interest in those who can provide intrigue, interesting information, or the few who manage to trick a copper dragon itself.

Copper dragons tend to live in places with rocky hills, often nearby to other settlements (to a dragon), but never close by. Like all dragons, copper dragons accumulate a number of riches in their hoards, however, copper dragons also tend to collect items that may not contain a lot of value. Often things like artwork, books, and other strange and curious objects can also be found in their hoard.

Gold Dragons

Of all the metallic dragons, gold dragons are the most dedicated to defeating evil. They spend most of their lives shapeshifted as humanoids and will often travel outside of their lair for periods of time, where their shapeshifting comes in particularly handy when interacting with others. While traveling, gold dragons enjoy learning new knowledge and teaching others on their travels. While often gone from their lairs, gold dragons do not neglect its upkeep. They will often have magical traps, righteous and trustworthy guards, or other measures in place to prevent looting.

Silver Dragons

Silver dragons are true friends to all. Silver dragons enjoy the company of humanoids so much that it will often take the form of one and live among them for the majority of its life. In fact, it is said that silver dragons love humanoids because they believe they are lesser creatures. Silver dragons also love the diversity of human cooking and culture and are especially interested in items created through human ingenuity such as watches.

Unlike some other metallic dragons, silver dragons believe that just being evil doesn't mean that evil creatures don't have a right to live. They believe that as long a creature does not commit or plan to do evil, they will overlook the fact that a creature is evil.

For periods of time, silver dragons may transform into their true dragon form and purposely be seen by other humanoids in order to attract the attention of other silver dragons to mate.

Gem Dragons

Amethyst Dragons

The most powerful of the Gem Dragons, Amethyst Dragons are obsessed with studying and manipulating the fundamental laws that govern reality. From gravity to time itself, the laws of existence that apply to you or I are mere suggestions to an Amethyst Dragon, whose powers of flight rely as much on its ability to manipulate gravity as they do upon its sweeping wings. An Amethyst Dragon Wyrmling hatches with dull purple scales. As the creature grows, however, the lustre of its crystalline armour grows into a dazzling array of rich purple amethyst crystals, which dance with inner light. An Amethyst Dragon’s horns are also made from this shimmering purple crystal but, rather than grow out of their heads, they hover behind their skulls, held in the air by telekinetic energies that shift in accordance with their mood. Amethyst Dragons are deeply concerned with the balance of power between the material plane and those locked in its orbit, especially the Far Realm. As such, they are bitter enemies of mind flayers and other aberrations. 

Crystal Dragons

Nurturing, optimistic, and gregarious, Crystal Dragons rival their silver metallic cousins for the title of “Friendliest Dragon”. Their translucent, shimmering bodies are lit from within by radiant light, and they take great pleasure and interest in reading the stars in the night sky for glimpses of the future. Despite their warm natures, Crystal Dragons choose to make their homes in frozen, ice-bound places, which often brings them into conflict with frost giants and white dragons. Crystal Dragons have a tendency to adopt and foster the abandoned eggs of other dragons, and simply resting within a few miles of a Crystal Dragon’s lair is enough to cause you to recover more quickly from your wounds. 

Emerald Dragons

Cunning, manipulative, and possessing a gift for illusory magics, Emerald Dragons actually share some key characteristics with their green chromatic cousins – although their trickery is fuelled by their psionic gifts. They are also the shyest and most curious of the Gem Dragons, prone to cloaking themselves using their psionic abilities and observing humanoid settlements from afar. Emerald Dragons’ preference for volcanic lairs puts them in frequent conflict with fire giants and red dragons. Emerald Dragons often work with Sapphire Dragons, scouting ahead of their more warlike cousins in order to identify extraplanar threats for destruction. 

Sapphire Dragons

The boldest and most warlike of the Gem Dragons, Sapphire Dragons are perpetually on campaign against one threat or another, swooping down to weaken their foes with a hypersonic shriek, before finishing the job with tooth, claw, and their fearsome array of psionic spells. Sapphire Dragons are master strategists and use their aptitude for burrowing (a trait which they share with their blue chromatic cousins) to plan ambushes, pincer manoeuvres, and to follow their prey unseen. They are especially devoted to the eradication of extraplanar threats to the material plane, and will often hunt mind flayers, demons, and rogue fey alongside Emerald Dragons. Their scales are a dizzying and varied array of shades of blue, from delicate eggshell to the crystalline azure of sapphire gems and compressed glacial ice. Their psionic power is made especially obvious by the spines that hover along their head, neck, back, and tail. 

Topaz Dragons

Suffused with decay and despair, Topaz Dragons radiate necrotic energy that belies their shimmering golden scales. Many a luckless adventurer has mistaken a Topaz Dragon for one of its metallic counterparts, only to find themselves on the wrong end of a blast of necrotic energy that melts flesh from bone. Topaz Dragons are not (usually) malicious, however, viewing the death and destruction they sow as a way of making room for new growth. Forests that wither with their passing soon regrow, rejuvenated and healthier than before. Topaz Dragons are fascinated with anything entropic; items that both create and destroy can often be found in pride of place in their hoards. They also have a fascination with the undead, and sometimes keep a few locked away as curios within their lairs. 

 Extra Dragons (May need some Moderator confirmation to play)

Deep Dragons

Native to the underdark, Deep Dragons’ bodies are warped and twisted by centuries dwelling beneath the earth. Their eyes are vast, their heads eel-like, and they play host to colonies of virulent, poisonous fungi. So attuned are Deep Dragons to their fungal colonies that they can exhale clouds of toxic spores that assault their enemies with nightmarish visions. What on earth a magic mushroom trip could show me that’s worse than being face to face with a Deep Dragon I’d rather not think about. 

Elder Brain Dragons

One of the very few limitations of a mind flayer colony is the fact that its elder brain lies trapped with a briny pool at its heart. Should the illithids capture a dragon, however, things immediately get much worse. The mind flayers carry the captured creature to the elder brain at the heart of their nest, subjecting it to a gruesome transformation. The elder brain latches onto the dragon’s back, burrowing its tendrils into the creature’s mind and creating this nightmarish result. The elder brain augments the already fearsome qualities of its draconic host with its own psychic abilities, as well as a grappling tentacle attack and the ability to, ugh, vomit a stream of illithid tadpoles that burrow into your flesh, dealing psychic damage. If a creature dies while infested with these tadpoles, it becomes a mind flayer. Lovely.

Moonstone Dragons

The Feywild’s answer to shadow dragons, it’s thought that the first Moonstone Dragons were born during the great war between Tiamat, Bahamut, Sardior, and the warlike gods of the outer planes. A lone dragon found its way into the Feywild and hid her clutch of eggs far away from the war raging back on the material plane. The energies of the Feywild changed the eggs, creating the first Moonstone Dragons. Graceful, elegant creatures with opalescent scales and ruffs of emerald, green fur, Moonstone Dragons are now found throughout the faerie realm. Moonstone Dragons have the power to project their consciousness into the world of dreams, and their soporific breath attack can send even a raging barbarian into a deep slumber.  

Shadow Dragons

Shadow Dragons aren’t always born; sometimes they’re made. When a true dragon (as opposed to a Wyvern or a Drake) is born or remains in the Shadowfell for a number of years, the energy of the plane of shadows corrupts its form, warping it into a nightmarish beast made from pure darkness. The metamorphosis takes years, during which their colourful scales lose their lustre and take on a charcoal hue, sometimes tinged with purples and greens. Their wings become translucent, and their eyes turn a pale grey. Their appearance is also affected by light and darkness; a shadow dragon in near-total darkness becomes even harder to see as the darkness in its scales melds with the surrounding blackness. Shadow Dragons hate sunlight, and any bright at all weakens them; it’s as though the stuff of shadows themselves gives these beasts strength. Some Shadow Dragons embrace the Shadowfell, choosing to remain there amid the bleakness and desolation, amassing hoards of black gems in lairs made of obsidian. These dragons can easily become bored, and some try to lure creatures from the material plane into the Shadowfell for company – or sport. Other Shadow Dragons – whether through desire for treasure, conquest, or simply amusement – attempt to leave the Shadowfell, hungry to spread its shadows across the mortal world. 

Dragon Turtle

However, the original entry only presented an Adult Dragon Turtle. Fizban’s Treasury expands on these magnificent beasts with rules for Dragon Turtle Wyrmlings, Young Dragon Turtles, and even the Avengers-level threat that is the Ancient Dragon Turtle, which the guide notes are comparable in power to a Greatwyrm. For the most part, you could live your entire life close to (or even on the back of) an Ancient Dragon Turtle and never know. They’re fond of sleeping for centuries or more, drifting in the ocean currents or paddling lazily along below the surface, enjoying the sun on their backs and paying no mind to the hapless mortals building their homes upon their shells. When a Dragon Turtle is roused, however, they summon vast tempests that roil across their backs, spew forth scorching gouts of steam powerful enough to shatter the strongest of ships and boil the oceans around them.

Dragon Traits

Large, Winged, Reptillian creatures with a lust for treasure

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength, Constitution, and Charisma scores each increase by 1.

Age

Dragons reach adulthood around 100 and it is said that they can live up to 2,000+ years.

Alignment

Dragon alignments can be all over the alignment table entirely depending on race, childhood, religion, etc.

Size

Young dragons are about the size of humans. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision

You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey.

Dragon

Your creature type is considered dragon.

Lair

Most dragons have a lair where, due to your accumulation of treasures, you take everything that has value. Sleeping in your lair and under your treasure reduces your rest time to half the time required. Anyone who approaches up to 60 feet from your lair alerts you to possible invaders but does not give the exact location of them. The lair should typically be built in a terrain that fits your ancestry. Having a lair is optional.

Dragon Body

Although you are a powerful dragon, being a dragon also has some detriments. You cannot wield weapons or use armour and must find creative ways to wear rings, hats, and other apparel.

Eye for Money

Whenever you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check related to gold, magical items, or gemstones, you are considered proficient in the Investigation skill and if you are already proficient in the Investigation skill, your proficiency bonus is doubled for to the check.

Dragon Type

You may choose a dragon type. Your choice grants you resistance to the damage type associated with your Dragon Type and determines the damage type of your Dragon Breath and Breath Attack.

Shape Change

Starting at 5th level, as an action, you may polymorph yourself into a commoner with no concentration required. This trait lasts until you use it again, are dropped to 0 hit points, die, or if you drop the transformation with no action required. After you use this trait, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.

Wings

Dragons have great wings that require practice and a honing of draconic ancestry to properly harness. At 5th level, you gain a 30 foot flying speed, and you can't use this speed, if in your current form you don't have the wings, or if you are wearing armour of any kind.

Claws

Your claws are a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.

Breath Attack

You can use your action to exhale destructive energy. Your draconic type determines the size, shape, and damage type of the exhalation. When you use your breath attack, each creature in the area of the exhalation must make a saving throw, the type of which is determined by your draconic ancestry. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. A creature takes 1d10 damage on a failed save, and half as much damage on a successful one. The damage increases to 2d10 at 6th level, 3d10 at 11th level, and 4d10 at 16th level.

Languages

You can speak, read, write and understand Common, Draconic, and one extra language of your choice.